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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26320693">Thor, the Saxons and the Danes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/daviderl/pseuds/daviderl'>daviderl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Thor (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:08:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,866</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26320693</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/daviderl/pseuds/daviderl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor joins a small band of Saxon refugees, protects them from Danish soldiers</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Thor, the Saxons and the Danes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Thor, the Saxons and the Danes</b>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>During the 800s AD, in the land that was destined to become England, things were in turmoil. The Catholic Saxons were trying to join the various small “kingdoms” to form one unified state. While the Pagan Danes were fighting to keep the Saxons and their religion from becoming the dominant force. Plus, there were the Celts, the Scots and others who wished to maintain their autonomy, answerable only to their own Lords and Lord Kings.</p><p> </p><p>During this time, it was not safe to travel without armed men to accompany and protect travelers. But there were those who had no choice but to travel on foot going from one small village to the next on various errands.</p><p> </p><p>It was during one of these journeys that a raiding party of Danes came upon a dozen or so women, children, aged and sickly refugees, led by a Catholic monk. And they decided it was their duty to kill the followers of the so-called “one true god” and take whatever meager possessions they had.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It was still early enough that the cold morning mists still covered much of the land. But the small band of refugees – the old, the sickly, women and children and their leader, a middle aged priest, Father Almund ('defender of the temple'), had already broken camp. There was almost nothing for them to eat, but they knew they had no time to tarry. They had heard and seen the enemy – hostile Danes looking to rob and kill any they chanced upon while journeying to find and to join with others of their kind to do battle against Saxon armies.</p><p> </p><p>So they were wary, and afraid, when a lone traveler approached them. He was wearing a long robe with a hood over his head, his face barely seen. He had a long staff in one hand and carried a large sack over his shoulder. When he asked if he could join them to wherever they were heading, the priest confronted him, his hand on the handle of the dagger at his belt.</p><p> </p><p>“We have little food and drink; only enough for ourselves, We have none to share. So, no, you cannot join us. You must leave.”</p><p> </p><p>The stranger dropped the sack to the ground. “I have black bread and hard cheese. I would be willing to share if I may journey with you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Open the sack.”</p><p> </p><p>He did so and brought out the food he had described. “Take it,” he said.</p><p> </p><p>“Please, Father Almund!” one woman pleaded. “My child is so weak from hunger. He needs to eat. As do we all.”</p><p> </p><p>Reluctantly, the priest agreed, and the stranger allowed the group to take what he had, emptying the sack.</p><p> </p><p>“Where did you find so much food?” the suspicious priest asked him.</p><p> </p><p>“From beneath the noses of a Danish army while they slept, drunk with wine from their latest victory against a small Saxon village. But have no fear they will be chasing after me. What little I took will barely be missed.”</p><p> </p><p>They walked together all day, eyes and ears alert for the sound of horses, approaching or passing by. Several times Father Almund questioned the stranger in an attempt to know more about him. But he would not even give his name. For two more days and nights they traveled, and somehow the stranger managed to find food for them.</p><p> </p><p>The first morning, he left early while everyone was still sleeping, then returned at daybreak with a half grown deer over his shoulder, its neck broken. It took until almost mid morning before the deer was skinned and cooked, providing the first real meal they had eaten in many days.</p><p> </p><p>The second morning, the stranger returned again at daybreak with a half dozen wild rabbits to add to their food supply.</p><p> </p><p>It was well past noon on the third day that they heard, then saw a band of two dozen Danish soldiers coming toward them. They were in the middle of a plain and had no where to run to. The horsemen formed a half circle around the small group, about 40 feet away.</p><p> </p><p>“Gather up!” Father Almund ordered them. “Gather up and I will talk to them, and plead for mercy.”</p><p> </p><p>As the priest neared the leader, he was unaware that the stranger was only a few steps behind him. But before Father Almund could speak, the leader of the band, whose name was Gunnar, told one of his bowmen, “Kill this priest, and his companion.”</p><p> </p><p>The bowman released and arrow, but the stranger batted it down with his staff. Another bowman also took aim at the priest, but the stranger pushed him to the side and the arrow passed by harmlessly.</p><p> </p><p>“These people are under my protection!” the stranger yelled out. “Leave this place now and I will let you depart with no harm to any of you!”</p><p> </p><p>“Kill this loud mouth!” Gunnar yelled out to anyone..</p><p> </p><p>And two more arrows left bows, both aimed at the stranger. Again, he effortlessly swatted one away with his staff, and caught the other. But before anyone else could make the attempt, the stranger raised his staff skyward, and from a solitary cloud, a shaft of lighting struck the tip of the staff, with an accompanying clap of thunder. And as the bottom of staff hit the ground, the stranger was transformed.</p><p> </p><p>The robe had been replace with furs and leather. His hair was long and a fiery red, with a red beard that was braided and decorated with bead work. And the staff had changed into a short-handled, double headed hammer, inscribed with sacred runes, and seeming to crackle with electricity. His arms were bare, revealing heavily muscled arms, developed from hundreds, if not thousands, of years of using the hammer he carried.</p><p> </p><p>The lighting and the thunder that altered Thor's appearance -- the flash and intense noise, caused almost half of the horses to rear, throwing their riders to the ground, then race off. And without a word, Thor threw the hammer toward the first bowman, who had managed to control his horse, striking him just hard enough to knock him to the ground, then the hammer returned to Thor's hand.</p><p> </p><p>Still astride his mount, Gunnar exclaimed, “Praise be to Thor, All Powerful God of Thunder! We beg mercy from you!”</p><p> </p><p>“To your feet,” Thor instructed those on the ground, and slowly they stood up, in fear, but they stood.</p><p> </p><p>“You call yourselves warriors,” he began to chastise them. “Yet you make war on women and children, the elderly and the ill?”</p><p> </p><p>“But they are Saxons, and Christians. They are the enemy!” Gunnar replied, hiding his fear.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you so afraid of the helpless? Do you think that because you are so far from home that Odin knows not what you do? Do you think that his ravens, Hugninn and Muninn, do not see and hear your actions?”</p><p> </p><p>Then in a fit of rage, Thor threw his hammer at a enormous oak tree seventy feet away, shattering it into thousands of pieces. And again it returned to his hand.</p><p> </p><p>“I see many of you wear the token of my hammer. And you think you honor me, yet when I see such cowardice, I feel shamed and <em>dishonored</em> when I think of your actions against those who cannot defend themselves.”</p><p> </p><p>With another act of anger, Thor raised his hammer high, then sent a bolt of lighting in the opposite direction to destroy an elm tree one hundred feet away, with a fiery explosion. The thunder was almost deafening. Everyone had their ears covered. And again, many of the horses reared up throwing their riders to the ground, then sped away in fear.</p><p> </p><p>“Leave now while I seek to check my temper. Find the armies of the Saxons and the Celts and the Scots and the Welsh. Acquit yourselves with honor and bravery that should you fall the Valkyries will carry you to Valhalla. Unless you would prefer they know that you have taken the lives of those who are defenseless, and that you would prefer an afterlife in the Land of the Dead with Hela to rule over you.”</p><p> </p><p>Thor looked at them with disgust on his face. “And one more item. Should you come upon yet another band of the poor and helpless, you shall show charity. If they are need of food, you will feed them. If they are cold, you will offer furs to warm them. Now <strong>GO !</strong>”</p><p> </p><p>Gunnar wasted no time in galloping away. And those without horses were pulled up behind those who still rode, and soon all were out of sight, and all that could be seen was dust in the distance.</p><p> </p><p>When Thor turned toward the group, he could see fear in all their eyes. So he raised his hammer and a solitary bolt of lightning raced down to it, and he was changed again, into the nameless stranger wearing a hooded robe with a wooden staff. But still he saw the fear.</p><p> </p><p>“I will leave now,” he told them. “You have nothing to fear from the Danes, and nothing to fear from me. You should camp here for the night. Fifty paces into the trees you will find a small stream with clear water.”</p><p> </p><p>And without another word, he turned to the direction the Danes had gone and walked away from them, never looking back. The farther away he got, the less fear everyone felt. When he was finally out of sight, A young girl, 12 or 13 years of age, approached Father Almund.</p><p> </p><p>“Please, Father, I am confused.”</p><p> </p><p>“My child, what is it that you don't understand?”</p><p> </p><p>“In church we are told the Pagan gods are a lie; that they do not exist. Yet just now we all have seen their god of thunder change before our very eyes. And we have seen his terrible hammer destroy two trees. How can this be?”</p><p><br/>“Because you have not seen their false god. What you have seen is Satan himself – the very embodiment of evil!”</p><p> </p><p>“But he provided food when we had none,” a middle aged woman argued. “And he protected us from being butchered by the Danes.”</p><p> </p><p>“That is how Lucifer works,” Father Almund countered. “He makes you think he is good and benevolent and protective of you. And then, when you are convinced of his goodness, he will enter your hearts and leave his evil within you. And he does this so slowly and so innocently that he will have you in his grasp and there will be nothing you can do – you will have become evil and obscene in the eyes of God Almighty!”</p><p> </p><p>“But--” the teen age girl started to say.</p><p> </p><p>“But nothing! You have seen the face of the unholy demon but a single time, and now it infects you with doubt of the one true God and his eternal love for you! I will hear no more blasphemous thoughts that spew from your lips!”</p><p> </p><p>And despite wanting to believe the priest, the young teen couldn't help but look toward the route Thor had taken, and wonder if everything she was told was always the truth.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>THE END</b>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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